Latest Albums Reviews

What an excellent debut album by the Finnish prog metallers Constantine. The band has done their homework and they play together very tight despite the complex nature of the music. Often with progressive metal the letdown are the solos and over technical passages that bore anyone except the musicians themselves, but this is not the case here. Although almost all songs clock over eight minutes, there is no feeling of overstretching the songs, they work in their whole.

Even though some of the songs suffer from a bit weaker vocal melodies (A Change in the Tide especially) the songs are strong troughout the album and the whole package is worth listening. The instrumental work is fantastic and make up for the few less good vocal parts, especially the drumming is world class.

The personal favourites would be The Shadow Within (only song under eight minutes here), Through the Veil of Death and the monumental The Darkest Grace (a fan favourite here in Finland amongst the relatively small fanbase).

If progressiveness doesn't scare you, please listen to this album. I personally think that Constantine is too good to be such an unknown band, so try it out!

Dear god is this album good. The late Gary Moore's contribution to this Lizzy album succeeded above great, forging one of the very best Thin Lizzy albums of their carreer. From the melodic and energetic opener "Do Anything You Want To" through chill and laid back "Sarah" and the all too prophetic "Got To Give It Up" to the magnificent and elegantly folkish closing track "Roisin Dubh (Black Rose)", this is Thin Lizzy delivering the goods they're known for. That being ofcourse the tight "band-sounding" playing by the whole band, awesome twin-guitar attack, thought-provoking lyrics and soulful singing of Phil Lynott and the sheer melodiness of it all.

Many fans consider this the band's best offering, and one can see why. The album is consistent throughout, every song has it's place on it and the production is crystal clear. Every song on the album has great guitar parts, wheter its a twin guitar melody or a blistering solo by Gary. And man do I love the groove laid by Lynott and Downey, very precise playing, yet still at the same time highly interesting and creative. Especially nowadays I would like to see musicians like this: doing their part in a band but never stepping too much into the spotlight and at the same time on the toes of the song.

The whole album has a cheerful energy to it, and it sure brings a smile to my face every time I listen to it. The music is very delicate and well thought up and the songs gel well together. It's hard to pick out favourite songs on this one (which is always a good thing), but I've always had a soft spot for "Sarah". It has a very nice "by the fireplace"-feel to it and the guitar and vocal melodies are just stunning. And you can't write a review about this one without mentioning the hit "Waiting for an Alibi" with it's catchy chorus and, again, sublime twin guitars by Gorham/Moore.

The last song is arguably one of the best Thin Lizzy tunes on any album. Clocking up to seven minutes in length it is an Irish traditional meets rock-fiesta and really showcases the abilities of Gary Moore with a lengthy guitar part in the middle.

It's not a very heavy album, so pure metal thrashers might find it a tad too bit lame, but if you're into hard rock or the here labelled "proto metal" you should hear this one. Simply. Amazing.

At first I didn't get this band. They were described and hailed everywhere as a great NWoBHM/traditional Heavy Metal act that kicked ass in live shows and also on record. I tried to get into the music a couple of times on their MySpace-site, but never really got that much interested. Everything was basically just the way it should be, but I felt that it missed something.

Then at the time of the release of their second album Diamonds the album was availible as a free download for a day or something, and I thought that now I'm giving them the last chance by listening to a whole album. Then in the small hours of the night I understood the hype surrounding the band: the opening song Midnight Vice caught me by the throat and I was shocked. This sounded a bit like the early Maiden, really hungry, vital and full of energy. Even the intro reminds me of Maiden's Ides of March which I always fancied.

The first song of the album is still probably my favourite off of it, but most of the material is following close behind. There are many speedish-sounding pieces here: Roll the Dice, High Roller, Live for the Night... they all have very 80's sounding riffs and soaring clean vocals and the soundscape is also leaning heavily to the eighties. It's actually quite pleasing to hear a heavy metal record made in the 2000's where you can hear the bass clearly. To accompany the sheer kick-ass fast paced tracks we have some slower and more epic stuff such as Katana, which has a great chorus and a nice mid-song build up that explodes into some fantastic guitar work.The record is quite even throughout, no fillers or clear bad tracks.

The length also bows to the vinyl ages, for it only runs for about 40 minutes in total. This makes it easier to listen than say Iron Maiden's newer albums which normally clock over an hour. So if you're interested in classic-sounding traditional heavy metal filled with furious and energetic tracks, you should definently check this one out. Friends of Killers or The Number of the Beast by Iron Maiden should not be dissapointed.

Oh yeah, almost forgot, the song Walk With Me is (besides being an amazing and atmospheric song) based on the famous tv-series Twin Peaks. So that's another thumbs up for these Swedish fellows!

Latest Forum Topic Posts

Posted more than 2 years ago in Sinner (Trad. HM)The one from Germany. I only found a band from UK with the same name, although this one is far more known in general (at least to my knowledge). I'm not that familiar with the band myself, but I am a bit surprised that it isn't included, the stuff that I've heard is straight on heavy metal, no doubt about it.Band on metal-archives:http://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Sinner/909Official website:http://www.matsinner.com/Wikipedia article:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinner_%28band%29Or did I somehow fail searching for this one?

Posted more than 2 years ago in What were the first ten bands you got into ?I am doing this mostly for myself, to try and remember what were the first ones... thanks for the intriguing topic! I'll leave out stuff that I was listening to because my friends were listening to them and only include the ones that I really got into. Not excluding genres.1. Bob MarleyMe and my friend found out that skateboarding and laid back music of Marley mixed very well together, my parents had some compilation album and I really dug into that. I don't really listen to Bob that much these days, but I still enjoy some of his music when I get around to it.2. Iron MaidenI got introduced to Maiden also because of skateboarding. Number of the Beast was playing in some amateur skate video and I simply loved it. Bought 'Best of the Beast' (the one cd version) and almost wore it out. Really a big favourite of mine to this day, one of the biggest loves in music. A bit faded in the recent years, mainly because The Final Frontier didn't sound as good as A Matter of Life and Death to me, and the most recent gig I saw at Helsinki Olympic Stadium was a bit of a lazy one. I really felt dissapointed, because they have always been sort of a number one band for me. The first studio albums I bought were 'Killers' and 'Iron Maiden', I think in that particular order.3. Judas PriestIt's starting to get a bit fuzzy after that, but I'm pretty sure the mighty Priest came after Maiden. I convinced my mom to buy me the compilation album 'Metal Works' at a trip to a cabin and I was hooked. The studio albums that i got first would probably be 'Sin After Sin' and 'Painkiller', from which the latter I still found to be a bit overrated. I still prefer the 70's Priest, but ofcourse the classic 'Screaming for Vengeance' and 'Defenders of the Faith' are up there among the best albums by the band. Sitll love 'em, always have and probably always will. Although KK is out of the band and Halford's singing has gone downhill for quite a long time now, they still deliver the goods live.4. HelloweenAnother one of my friends got 'Keeper of the Seven Keys pt. II', and there was no going back after that. Some of my fondest memories concerning this band are with that friend, checking out the 'High Live'-dvd in the dark of his room and just talking how cool and fast they were. First album I bought was 'Master of the Rings', which I still hold as one of the best albums by the band along with the two keeper albums and 'The Time of the Oath'. This is probably due to cranking 'High Live' so many times with my friend. I still enjoy them, but it's not that often when I spin one of their records.From here onwards it's just guesses, so many bands in a short period of time, I can't recall the actual order.5. King DiamondYet again through a friend. He send me a couple of songs and I loved them. Went and bought "Them", loved the album, went and bought 'Abigail', loved that one too. Sadly I have never seen the maestro live due to his problems with his back in the recent years, but I'm still hoping to experience that spine chilling scream og his. Some fun memories which incorporate King Diamond feature me and my friend (the one with whom we got into Helloween) playing a Biker Mice From Mars game with a super nintendo emulator and cranking 'Abigail'. Still love the music very much to this day.6. Blind GuardianFound out some mp3's in the internet, loved them and afterwards bought 'Imaginations From the Other Side', which I still consider to be their greatest triumph. This one was my own thing for quite a while, none of my friends seemed to like it at first. But I simply loved 'Imaginations' and went on to buy the rest of their albums. I have seen a short festival gig at Tuska by them, but ofcourse I still hunger for more. Why wont they do a headlining show at Finland? Still love the band very much, but I miss Thomen Stauch on the drummers spot.7. QueenI had listened to Queen for quite a long time, but I really got into them slowly. My father bought me 'the greatest hits I' album as a christmas present and told me to listen to some mindblowing music. Queen wasn't considered cool at the time amongst my friends, so that slowed things down quite a bit with this band, but after one of them got hooked, I "allowed" myself to get into them more. The first studio album I bought was 'A night at the Opera' followed by 'A Day at the Races'. The band was a really important part in broadening my musical horizons, and they are still one of my biggest favourites. Freddie was the best.8. Rory GallagherAnother one of my dad's inputs. He came home from work one afternoon and gave me a copy of Gallagher's 'Calling Card' (do I have to mention that this one is still my favourite album by him? ) and told me to listen to this great guitarist. I went straight upstairs and put the cd to my stereos. I was blown hooked immediately, and really loved the songs. We had an old VHS-tape laying around recorded from the TV, where Rory played live, and that also made a huge impact on me. This guy was at times even more energetic live than the heavier bands that I was so muc into. Still love the music, but for some reason I still don't own that much music made by the man. A very underrated musician today, but it is true that most of his albums are not that solidly good throughout.9. Pink FloydMy mom had 'The Dark Side of the Moon' as an LP,

Posted more than 2 years ago in Bruce Dickinson solo works appreciationBeing a huge Maiden fan I just had to buy Bruce's solo work. I've got all the studio albums, but the great live album is still omitting. I have my sights on the remastered album that contains the Scream for me Brazil and the studio/club live.The albums are all listenable, but the real gem is Chemical Wedding. I've never got too fond of Accident of Birth for some reason, I actually prefer Balls to Picasso over it. Skunkworks and Tattooed Millionare are nice little albums also, but nothing too special except the couple of masterpieces that they hold within. I liked Tyranny of Souls too very much, so I would recommend that one too.The first three albums are quite interesting because they are different but still sound good. Not very metal throughout, but there are a lot of interestin things on them and they show that Dickinson is not all about the bombastic heavy metal music that he's associated with. Hopefully the Air Raid Siren will do yet another solo album in the years to come, so far none of them have been bad in my opinion.